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Join Us Each Tuesday!

Tuesday, March 29th marked the first day of the 2005 period, lasting about 6 weeks, in which Canadian seal hunters are club and killing about 320,000 harp and hooded seal pups.

Friends of Animals members and supporters protested at the door of the Canadian Consulate. Holding posters and informing people about the hunt, we now gather weekly to demand the abolition of Canada’s seal massacre.

Justifications for the hunt have varied. First, we heard that seals ate too many Atlantic codfish. The latest excuse comes from the Canadian seal oil salespeople. If seal oil can be marketed, they argue, then Canadians aren’t just killing for the fur salons of Europe and Canada. But no matter what the excuse, seals are not commodities. They’re more than fur, more than oil: They are living, feeling beings, entitled to their freedom.

Firm opposition is required during the entire seal hunt season. Join our weekly rally every Tuesday of the seal hunt season. Let the world know that the Canadian government continues to subsidize the annual slaughter on the ice floes at Newfoundland’s coast.

Meet us in New York City

When:

Tuesday, April 5th, 12:30-2:30 p.m. (and every Tuesday until May 10th)

Where:

Consulate General of Canada
1251 Avenue of the Americas (50th St. & 6th Avenue) New York, NY

Keep the letters coming

If you live in another area, please feel empowered to back up the seals today; send a letter opposing the hunt to:

Pamela Wallin, Canadian Consulate General
1251 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY United States 10020-1175
Telephone: 1-212-596-1628
Facsimile: 1-212-596-1790

Ask Canada to become a beacon of a humane global society by calling an immediate stop to the seal hunt. If the Canadian government wishes to give economic and social support to Newfoundlanders, it should certainly do so. But it should not mean the skin off a seal’s back.

Comments

Submitted by toru matsubayashi on Wed, 2005-03-30 16:19

I sincerely support your organization. I wish I were in New York now and could join your protest against this horrible Canadian human act on poor seals.
I was only a child when I saw this massacre on TV for the first time more than 15years ago. I cannot believe they are still doing this! Whatever their rationale may be, I really cannot think of anything more brutal and inhumane than this killing of seals, who even cannot fight back at all and run fast on the ice. I cannot stop crying at this sight every year and I feel helpless.
What can I do to stop this?

This is an atrocity against our Lord's creations. Anyone who has a grain of compassion knows this is against everything that is moral,etc. It makes most of us literally sick to hear or see anything to do with this horror. THIS MUST STOP NOW!!!

After seeing the footage of this despicable act last night, I have not been able to get the images out of my head. Watching the systematic murder-and there is no other word for it- put me in tears. I do not understand how the nation of Canada can ever again refer to itself as civilized. I feel so helpless about this situation.There has to be more that we can do than just send letters, sign petitions ,etc. Millions of people have protested and yet the slaughter continues. Since I became involved in animal and enviromental causes, I have never felt as low as I do today. May the entire Canadian Seafood Industry collapse as a result of our boycott.

It is impossible for me not to be impassioned about the horror and inhumanity of the seal hunt in Canada. It is immoral and
should be abolished. We need to keep the pressure on Canadian officials ... until the seals can live free.

I don't ususally get involved in the passionate exchanges of individuals who are the pro and con on most issues. However, I do feel compelled to make a statement regarding the slaughter of baby seals, whether using clubs or anthing else for that matter. I cannot understand the mentally of those who actually can walk up to a baby seal and, brutally, kill it by using a club!! What kind of people are you up there in Canada. This is the country that took in an harbored so many U.S. citizens who decided to desert their country during the Viet Nam War era. The Canadians decried the "senseless slaughter" of both the Vietnamese as well s American lives. Yet you condone this barbaric pratice? For what? Money? Makes me want to throw up when I think of the footage I saw of the carnage. So much for the peace loving Canadians. All God's creatures deserve the right to live according to God's purposes. These helpless and beautiful little creatures have more than enough natural enemies and now must try to avoid human barbarians as well. Canada......put an end to this now. Restore this American's faith in my northern neighbors and find a way to protect, not destroy, these creatures. Until such time you can rest assured that no Canadian made product or any sold from Canada, will enter my household.

To Fabiano:
We are not engaged in a boycott. There are a number of reasons for this. I'll mention four key reasons.
1. As pointed out on another thread on this blog, a boycott of Canadian marine animal products will simply make the hunters' situation more desperate, which could result in their believing they must make up for the boycott by clubbing and shooting more seals (many seal hunters do this hunt in their off-season when they are not engaged in collecting fish).
2. A temporary boycott assumes that we were eating those fishes all along. In other words, that we were taking fish out of the mouths of seals, and thereby allowing the Canadian government to come up with a justification to kill the seals: "Seals eat too many fish; we want to market those fish; let's cull some seals." A temporary boycott also means people go back to eating those fish once the seal hunt ends. As you can probably see, that makes no sense. Temporary boycott pressure means that the cycle of seal-hunting will likely start up again in a few years, after public attention turns to other things.
3. In the big picture, to persuade people to respect any certain animal, we should show respect for all of them. Respecting sea animals in general promotes the case that animals aren't born to be our resources, but to live for their own reasons.
4. Seals are mainly hunted to be marketed to the global fur industry. Therefore, it is important to focus our activism on the importers of fur, and the fur industry generally. Success is possible. The Spanish-based Zara fashion chain cleared its shelves of all fur starting at the beginning of this year. Activism made a difference.
Lee Hall,
Friends of Animals.

I too live here in Canada and am disgusted about this whole seal hunt.. I cant bear to watch it or let alone think about it anymore.. I have signed petions all over the place and even wrote to the premier on this subject.. Why cant it be stopped its total barbaric, it sickins me to think that it will be happning soon, that they will be out there again.. How sad it is for those poor creatures..Im ashamed to say that i am Canadian..I really am.....
I wish i had power to stop this brutal masacre..The thing is there are people who can , but wont . I just cant understand.